St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-24
JOB MOSES MILLIONS.
They Came From the OIL Wells in the
Earth.
Rapid Way In Which He Accumu-
lated His Big Fortune.
Philadelphia Times.

shake hands with the boys. He is not
operating now. Like the sensible man
that he is, he is contented with what he has
got. Still he can't resist the temptation
now and then TO take run on from his
city home and see how the old thing works
He is a mild, unassuming old fellow, and
no one meeting him for the first time
would imagine that he was one of the
richest oil kings in the country and the man
who brought to the attention of the public
the greatest oil field the world has ever
known.
Moses was a country boy, born some
where up about Leroy, n. Y, who drifted
into Rochester while still in his teens to
make his fortune. In 1862 he had made it.
and big one, out of a patent pill that he
or some one else had invented. About that
time Oil Creek was in its glory, and the
newspapers teemed with accounts of the
fortunes to be made almost in day ont of
Oil. The stories fired the Imagination of
the Rochester pill man and he determined
to try his hand at the new source of wealth.
However,, lie did not follow the trail of the
argonauts who were seeking their fortunes
along the creek. lie was an independent
sort of fellow and made up his mind to
Up in the northern part of Mexican county,
this state, and the southern part of Cat
taraugus county. New York. lies val
ley which was then and is vet one of the
widest and most forsaken sections of coun-
try to be found east of the Mississippi
Through this valley, then given to lumber
ing, Charles Minot, who used to conduct
the Erie road sometimes for profit. but
mostly for pleasure and glory, had for some
reason built a branch road which ran
through Bradford-whlch then boosted
three houses, blacksmith shop, a school
house and tavern-and terminated at the
little lumber camp of Gtlesville.
PUSHING THE DRILLS.
JOB Moses looked over the field, studied
the maps, and finally made up his mind that
the valley through which Muot's little
railroad ran was underlaid with one vast
sea of oil. As time passed on be became as
certain as fate that his conclusions were
right. One day he showed up in Bradford,
leased some thousands of acres, and soon
had well under way. The simple minded
natives, who had thought him eccentric at
first, set him down as lunatic when he
told them that the earnings of the railroad
which ran past their door would soon be in
creased twenty-fold, and to this opinion
they clung for many long year.
When Moses began pushing the drill in
the valley many of the oil kings of to-day
were unknown and unheard of John ID.
Rockafeller, Oliver II. Payne and Bill
Thompson had not yet matured their plans
for fleeing the helpless producer. Dan
ODay and Fl. l.. Taylor would have
looked upon $1,000 as a fortune. Peter
Grace and Capt. j. j. Vandergrf had not
yet returned from the war. Col. DYER
was on farm down in Maine.
The Nobels. now the Standard
Oil company of Russia, We're max
ing barrels in Pittsburg. Lem and Ike
Willets were cutting logs up in Allegheny
county, n. Y. and Charley Young was
working for them at $40 month. The
Fishers and Phillips had their fortunes to
make, while Joe Craig was not yet out of
the primer and Jim McKeowh was still
dressing tools along the creek.
For twelve years Job Moses, with logged
resolution, sank hole after hole in his
leases. but with no show of oil. Then he
woke up one morning to find that the
thousands he had made out of pills
in Rochester had vanished into the
holes he had been punching in
the woods and fields about Bradford and
that he was poor man. Disappointed but
not discouraged, he went to New York.
and with an eloquence born of earnestness,
succeeded in obtaining from the capitalists
who gave him hearing money with which
to continue his search This was in 1875.
Once back Oh his field of operations, new
idea struck him. Up to that time he had
drilled all his wells only 900 feet deep, the
horizon at which Oil was found along the
creek. Perhaps there might be a pro-
dun and or FIN f1 r
one of his wells 500 feet deeper, and was
rewarded with fifty-barrel producer.
Another and another told the same or a
better story. Moses had found the oil
field for which he had so long been search
ing. Every well he sunk gave him rich
returns. The news of his success spread
abroad, and the tide of oildom turned
slowly toward Bradford A wear later
it had increased to flood. and the fact
was freely admitted that no such
field had ever been struck before. Lands
which two years before had been almost
worthless sold for more than princes ram
som. But Moses had it all under lease and
was able to make his own terms. His
thirteen years OF waiting melted him mill
ions. He lives in New York now. eniovs
life keenly, and always has spare fifty OF
loan to any of the boys who happen to get
broke in the metropolis.
TWENTY THOUSAND WELLS.
The growth of Bradford was phenomenal.
In two years it grew from village of 800
souls to city of Is, 600, while three times
as many people were gathered in the scores
of little towns that surrounded it. The
field spread out over Moses 10000 acres
until it covered Is. 900 acres-lnore than
one-third of the known producing territory
of the country-every acre of it the choicest
of oil lands. In ten years fully 30. 900 wells
have been drilled and operated, involving
an expenditure of $50 600, 900. In the
first four years of Bradford's prosperity
fully one-half of this enormous sum was
paid out and went into general crcula-
ton. At the best the field produced 1OO,-
900 barrels day-it still produces over 90
600 daily-and since its inception it has
turned out 1876. 900, 900 barrels. This great
sea of oil carried with it clear profit of
S75, 900, 900 to producers. and this sum
would have been largely augmented had it
not been for operators who, more greedy
than discreet rushed developments. drain
ing the pool and lowering the price of
oil at the same time. 1t is safe to
say that the Bradford field will
never have its equal or its counterpart.
When the field was once accurately defined
the shrewd producer could tell by the loca-
ton of his prospective well what its produc-
ton would be before he began to drill. In
deed, so reliable is the sand, so barren of the
surprises common to other fields, that the
man who to day owns half dozen Bradford
producers can figure within 500 of what
his income from them will be during the
next year. The rise of the Bradford field
led to the building of half dozen railroads
and the laying of thousands of miles of
pipe lines. 1t gave employment for years
to an army of laborers and the money ex-
pended in the erection of tanks alone ran
into the millions